This sheet music is part of the collection of crosby3145 :
Nothing that exists is more
worthy of praise than God, so
it follows that he is
deserving of our best music.
Unsurprisingly, many pieces by
the greatest composers of
all-time appear throughout our
hymnals. Not all of these
were Christians, though
several were—Johann
Sebastian Bach, George
Frederic Handel, and Felix
Mendelssohn, for instance.
Saved or not, none of these
composers would have been able
to do what they did were it
not for a special gift from
God in the area of music.
It’s only natural, then,
that we should use their
pieces when we’re praising
God.
My approach to arranging these
hymns has been varied. Some,
I’ve tried to do in the
composer’s style—May the
Grace of Christ Our Savior;
Rise, Crowned with Light; O
Sacred Head, Now Wounded; and
the Mozart ones (which
aren’t quite as good, I’m
afraid). In Glorious Things
of Thee Are Spoken, I didn’t
bother to try to copy Haydn at
all, as he already wrote his
own piano variations on
it—this one is in my style.
Not Worthy, Lord, and Holy
Ghost, with Light Divine, are
more in my style. Still
others are, I think, hybrids.
I didn’t bother to try to
copy Beethoven on Joyful,
Joyful, We Adore Thee (how
could any composer top what he
did with it in the Ninth
Symphony), but I think some of
his influence slipped in on
the third statement of the
theme. While Shepherds
Watched Their Flocks by Night
is probably more in Mozart or
Beethoven’s style than
Handel’s, as I was looking
at their variations on other
pieces when arranging it.
Now, there are far more than
ten hymns by classical
composers out there, but these
are the ones I wound up
picking for this edition.
Whether you play classical
music all the time, or whether
you have little experience
with it, I hope you enjoy
these arrangements and that
they bring God glory, as Bach
always wrote at the end of his
pieces. And if you like
these, be sure to check out
the other works of Beethoven,
of Tchaikovsky, of
Gottschalk—of any of these
composers. After all, these
men spent their whole lives
writing music, and what you
see here is only the tip of
the iceberg. Enjoy! Sheet music list : › Fugue on O Sacred Head, Now Wounded › Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken › His Matchless Worth › Holy Ghost, with Light Divine › Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken › Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee › May the Grace of Christ Our Savior › Not Worthy, Lord! › Rise, Crowned with Light › While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks